Contemporary blenders are being called upon for more and more demanding applications. Both home and commercial blender use may include a broad range of material to be processed and blended. The material being blended includes dairy products (e.g., milkshakes) to smoothies (with, e.g., frozen fruit) to frozen cocktails (e.g., daiquiris and margaritas). The different materials to be blended have different blend characteristics. For instance, some of the materials are easy to blend and blend quickly, while other materials are very hard and are very difficult to process and blend.
Many blenders are programmed or programmable for different uses. The blender program will include different cycles that vary the blend speed and time of blend in order to obtain a targeted result. A problem that may be encountered is overblending or underblending of a material. Overblending or underblending may be caused by user error or just by variations in batches of material being processed and blended. The result is the same—watery or still chunky end product. At the very least, the broad range of material to be blended makes difficult a consistent textured drink.
Another common problem is cavitation. Many times when aggressive media is added to a drink, a gas pocket will form in the mix which is called cavitation. This is typically remedied by allowing the blender to continue blending until the pocket ruptures (as a result of vibration and/or melting) or the container may be shaken to loosen the mix.
A still further issue concerns the programmability of blender cycles, particularly in a commercial setting. There is a lot of interest in blenders having programmability so that a user may touch a single button and walk away. The blender then automatically runs a predetermined cycle. However, this single button programmability requires knowledge of the buttons—that is, which is the right button for the right drink. The determination of the right drink also includes variation with respect to the number of portions being blended. Portion blending is not solved by merely lengthening a blend cycle by a multiple of the number of portions desired.